RUTLAND, Vt. – The Vermont State University Castleton women's hockey team defeated Worcester State 6-2 Saturday afternoon.

Taylor Adams recorded her first career hat trick, while Alex Johnson and Caris Erickson each had two assists in the Spartans' victory. Victoria Bakopanos collected her third win of the season after stopping 25 of the Lancers' shots.

Rainey Lay opened the scoring with a deep shot that flew past the goalie to notch the sophomore defender's first goal of the season and give Castleton a 1-0 lead. Castleton's high intensity saw them earn their second goal of the match, with Mikayla Brightman and Ellie Schliebener setting up Moa Carlsson for her fifth goal of the year and extending Castleton's lead to two after one period of play. 

Castleton dominated on the offensive end with a new season high of 55 shots in Saturday's contest. The Spartans' efforts made way in the second period with Adams scoring her first of the game with a set-up play from Emery Bonner and Erickson to put Castleton up 3-0.

The Spartans continued their offensive attack with a powerplay goal from Rachel McNeil, who bagged her first of the season to bring the score to four. Castleton's scoring didn't stop there as Maysa Ford found Adams for her second of the game to close out the second period 5-0.

Worcester State's Amy MacGlashing scored a powerplay goal to put the Lancers on the board. Emily Johns found a late goal to close the gap on Castleton's lead. However, in just a few seconds after Johns' goal, Codi Bacon rifled a shot that took some height off a rebound which allowed Adams to find it behind the goalie and bury the puck home for her third of the game to cap off the hat trick and solidify the Spartans' win at 6-2.

VTSU Castleton heads into the holiday break 4-5-1 and will look to get back to .500 when they host The Bagley Invitational on January 3rd and 4th.